Thriving Kids or NDIS? What You Need to Know from October 2026

Thriving Kids will begin rolling out from October 2026, and understandably, many parents are asking the questions:

My child is already on the NDIS. Will they be moved to Thriving Kids?

My child has Level 2 autism. Does that mean NDIS or Thriving Kids?

If we haven’t applied for the NDIS yet, should we still apply?

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Thriving Kids will be introduced gradually, with the biggest change to NDIS access for young children not taking effect until 1 January 2028.

Here’s what families need to know.

What is Thriving Kids?

Thriving Kids is a new system of supports for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have low to moderate support needs, as well as their families.

Rather than requiring every child who needs developmental support to enter the NDIS, Thriving Kids is intended to provide more help through mainstream and community-based services.

The planned supports include child development checks, information and navigation for families, family capacity building and targeted supports such as allied health, low-cost assistive technology and other developmental supports.

Depending on a child’s needs, this may include services such as speech pathology, occupational therapy and psychology.

Importantly, Thriving Kids will not appear everywhere at once. Services will start rolling out from October 2026 and expand progressively across Australia, with the full national rollout planned for 1 January 2028.

1. My child is already on the NDIS. What happens now?

If your child enters the NDIS before 1 January 2028, they will not suddenly lose their NDIS access when Thriving Kids starts.

This includes children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs — the group that Thriving Kids is ultimately designed to support.

These children will continue to have their NDIS eligibility reassessed using the eligibility criteria that applied before 1 January 2028.

Once they turn 9, however, they may be reassessed under the new NDIS eligibility criteria, which will focus more directly on functional capacity — how significantly a person’s disability affects their ability to manage everyday life.

Children with a permanent and significant disability will continue to be eligible for the NDIS, subject to the usual requirements.

The Government has also confirmed that children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have substantially reduced functional capacity, or high support needs, will remain eligible for the NDIS.

So if your child is already receiving NDIS support, there is no need to panic because Thriving Kids starts in October. The transition is being staged over time.

2. Can we still apply for the NDIS now?

Yes. This is probably the most important message for families currently considering an NDIS application.

Between October 2026 and the end of 2027, Thriving Kids services will progressively become available, but the current NDIS access arrangements for young children will continue.

The new access arrangements do not begin until 1 January 2028.

So if your child currently has developmental delay, autism or another disability and may meet the existing NDIS access requirements, don’t put an application on hold simply because you have heard that Thriving Kids is coming.

Does my child meet the NDIS requirements that apply today? If the answer may be yes, you can still apply through the existing pathway.

3. What happens to new applications from 2028?

This is where the major change happens. From 1 January 2028, children aged 8 and under applying for NDIS support will be assessed under the new access arrangements.

Children with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs will generally be supported through Thriving Kids, mainstream services and other Foundational Supports instead of entering the NDIS.

Children with a permanent and significant disability will continue to be eligible, subject to the usual NDIS requirements.

Children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have substantially reduced functional capacity — described by the Government as high support needs — can also remain eligible for the NDIS.

Does Level 2 or Level 3 autism decide which system your child goes into?

Not necessarily.

It will be tempting to think of the new system like this:

Level 2 autism = Thriving Kids, Level 3 autism = NDIS

But that is not how the Government is framing the new access model.

The direction of the reforms is towards assessing a child’s actual support needs and functional capacity, rather than relying primarily on a diagnostic label.

In everyday terms, the question becomes less about:

“What diagnosis does my child have?”

and more about:

“How much does this disability affect my child’s everyday functioning, and how much support do they actually need?”

For example, two children may both have an Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 2 diagnosis but have very different communication, self-care, social, behavioural and day-to-day support needs.

Under the future system, those differences may matter considerably.

That is why families should not assume that a Level 2 or Level 3 diagnosis, by itself, tells them whether their child will belong in Thriving Kids or the NDIS.

One important detail is still missing

The Government has told us the broad dividing line:

Low to moderate support needs → Thriving Kids

Substantially reduced functional capacity / high support needs → potentially NDIS

What we do not yet have is the final practical threshold for determining exactly when a child has “substantially reduced functional capacity”.

A Technical Advisory Group is currently working on the assessment framework, including the assessment approaches, tools and thresholds that will be used for future NDIS access decisions.

That detail will be critical.

For families, allied health professionals and providers, it will determine what evidence becomes important when demonstrating that a child’s needs are significant enough for the NDIS rather than Thriving Kids.

Joystep will continue to follow the Thriving Kids rollout and NDIS access reforms closely, and we’ll explain the practical changes for families as more details are released.

Related Service: Plan Application and Review